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Sunday, 29 July 2012

I have been really pushed for time this month which left little opportunity to work on my free motion quilting challenges. I managed to squeeze in an hour or two today but I am not particularly happy with my efforts. I can't blame the poor results on the lack of time though.

I have been doodling all month whenever I have found a few minutes and I was happy with the drawings so I went into Angela's tiles challenge thinking it would be relatively simple. I was very wrong - it was deceptively difficult to stitch. The concept is not hard but I found that I lost my way a few times and had difficulty working out of corners where I often seemed to be stuck.

I took the easy way out and did stippling in my tiles but even the stipples are not very good. This is actually what has disappointed me the most. I thought I was pretty good at stipples but today I couldn't get a smooth rhythm which resulted in 'jumpy' stipples and pretty inconsistent spacing.

I really love the tiles design and after a bit more practicing I can't wait to fill the negative spaces of my modern quilt with it. I think that when it is quilted using white thread on a white background the design will be far more subtle and blend so much better than this practice piece done in contrasting thread.

I have ordered Angela Walters new book and I can't wait for it to arrive. And although I use a domestic sewing machine, I have signed up for Angela's online Machine Quilting Negative Space class with Craftsy.
I know that by the time I am finished I will see a vast improvement in my skills which makes it a bit easier to swallow the disappointing entry I am submitting to Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Quilt Challenge this month.

Thank you so much Sew Cal Gal and Angela Walters for your great tutorial this month.

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

This month I have decided to combine my homework for the Sew Cal Gal Free Motion Quilt Challenge and Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project. Leah's homework was to make a modern quilt top on which we are creating a zentangle of different quilting designs. This is very similar to last months Sew Cal Gal project which I loved doing. This month's tutor at Sew Cal Gal is Angela Walters who is an amazing quilter and has made a name for herself in relation to modern quilts. This month she is teaching us a quilting design she calls Tiles. This design lends itself perfectly to modern quilts as it is a great way to fill the negative space with great texture.
So in keeping with the theme I have designed my own modern quilt top. I chose to go a different way than what was suggested by Leah Day. I was not comfortable with the wonky squares that she demonstrated. So I sat down with graph paper and pencils and came up with a design I liked.

This is the finished product.

I think it will do the trick. There is enough negative space for the Tiles design we have to practice this month as well as having other areas to practice the different quilting designs we have learned to date.

I have never done anything 'modern' before but I think I could be a convert. It was really quick to piece and I loved not having to match lots of seams. I found the whole thing quite liberating actually.

Now to start practicing the free motion quilting designs for a few weeks before I attempt them on the quilt top.